The Wasp Factory: A Novel

Iain Banks

Jul 2013 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

The polarizing literary debut by Scottish author Ian Banks, The Wasp Factory is the bizarre, imaginative, disturbing, and darkly comic look into the mind of a child psychopath.

Meet Frank Cauldhame. Just sixteen, and unconventional to say the least:

Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim.

That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again.

It was just a stage I was going through.

Ratings and reviews

Honestly, I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. The writing is excellent, the story is interesting, and the whole thing is unique. The narrator is an interesting character and the inner-workings of his mind are shocking, unsettling, and pretty entertaining. The writing is so immersive that sometimes I had to take a deep breath and remind myself that this is a work of fiction, not a copy of a teenage killer's diary. This book is different, disturbing, and won't appeal to everyone, but it's alright.

To say the least. When I first finished reading the book, I wasn't sure if I liked it, but I knew that it was really enjoyable to read. It's a book that sticks with you for a while after you read it because it's so weird. Now that a few days have gone by, I can say that I liked the book and would recommend it to anyone who can stomach animal cruelty, child murders, etc.

The wasp factory Is a interesting book. I enjoyed the setting and characters, and over time felt a connection to them. The writing is excellent and very well described. Over all it was a fantastic read. Great twists and turns. Some chapters will leave you cringing , some laughing , and others appalled.

About the author

Iain Banks came to widespread and controversial public notice with the original publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, recently selected in a British poll as one of the top 100 novels of the century. Since then he has gained enormous popular and critical acclaim with further works of fiction and, as Iain M. Banks, science fiction. He lives in Scotland.